Fixed in the Mountains

Well, it's been a while since I did the Spartanburg Freewheeler's recruitment ride, I've been distracted. It was a cold Saturday morning around 34 F. I got up early and put on my gear, slung my bag over my shoulder, turned on my blinky light and headed out my front door on the DeathTrap to meet Dan. It was a short ride to the meeting place and it was cold. I was thinking that maybe I was making a mistake. I got my bike loaded on Dan's truck and we were off. We chatted about being a state employee in South Carolina and came to the same conclusions about our respective agencies. As the sun came up we could see the color of the leaves, our conversation turned to hunting. In no time we were at the meeting place, the middle school in Tygerville, near North Greenville College. We get our stuff ready as others begin to show. When everyone was ready we had a quick briefing and we were off. It was a nice slow pace for the first quarter mile, then the road markers were visible and the fast crowd took off like a shot. Dan gave chase and so did I. I didn't have a chance to warm up and I was struggling to keep up. Then Dan eased up ad said he wanted to cruise not race.

We went from 20+ mph adverage to about 16-18mph, much better. We rode on back roads until we found ourselves in Marrietta. We turned on route 188 and something tickled the back of my head, I've never ridden a bike on this road, but it was part of a stream sampling run from a former job. We tuned on Moody Bridge road and passed the waste water treatment plant that I used to sample, there is nothing like the smell of industrial waste water in the morning. By now I'm warm and the terrain has been mainly big rollers with some hills, just enough to kill me while I'm cold, but once my muscles are warm and the blood is flowing, it's not a problem. We take these scenic back roads that are absolutely beautiful and the leaves are not quite at peak color, but still fantastic.